Rail

Dallas, Fort Worth exploring PPP for rail expansion

Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) and the Fort Worth Transportation Authority (The T) issued a Request for Information (RFI), seeking firms who would be interested in a public private partnership (PPP) to design, construct, operate, maintain and finance a cross-regional passenger rail service starting as early as 2013.

The 67.7-mile project, known as the Cotton Belt Rail Line, will operate principally on a 54-mile DART-owned rail corridor of the same name. The DART corridor extends from Wylie in Collin County, north and east of Dallas, west to Fort Worth. Some of the cities on the corridor include Plano, Richardson, Dallas Addison, Carrollton and Fort Worth as well as DFW International Airport.

The line is presently used by freight lines and both DART and The T have plans for introducing passenger rail service. DART's current long-range system plan calls for Cotton Belt service starting by approximately 2027. The T is developing plans for rail service on another corridor in southwest Fort Worth, which could be part of the PPP, and connecting to the Cotton Belt in the northern part of the city.

The Cotton Belt Rail Line would connect the current DART Light Rail Red Line, the future Light Rail Green Line, as well as downtown Carrollton with the planned Denton County Transportation Authority passenger rail service between Denton and Carrollton, and the TRE line at the Intermodal Transportation Center and T&P Stations in Fort Worth.

This contract includes high voltage cabling from the state grid for the new 16-mile metro line. Alstom is the main supplier of Kochi metro after it has been awarded previous orders for 25 Metropolis trainsets, signalling, telecom and electrification. Commercial service is scheduled to begin in March 2016.

The contract, which is for a ten-year period with the option to extend another 5 years, covers maintenance and spare parts on 74 four-car Class 357 ELECTROSTAR trains and is valued at approximately $213 million.

The train wreck, which occurred in the early morning of March 24, 2014, when the operator allegedly fell asleep, injured more than 30 people and caused roughly $9 million in damage. The lead railcar had to be cut up to remove it from the escalator.